CVE-2026-42587 | Netty: HttpContentDecompressor maxAllocation bypass via Content-Encoding: br/zstd/snappy enables decompression bomb DoS

Exp

Netty is an asynchronous, event-driven network application framework. Prior to 4.2.13.Final and 4.1.133.Final, HttpContentDecompressor accepts a maxAllocation parameter to limit decompression buffer size and prevent decompression bomb attacks. This limit is correctly enforced for gzip and deflate encodings via ZlibDecoder, but is silently ignored when the content encoding is br (Brotli), zstd, or snappy. An attacker can bypass the configured decompression limit by sending a compressed payload with Content-Encoding: br instead of Content-Encoding: gzip, causing unbounded memory allocation and out-of-memory denial of service. The same vulnerability exists in DelegatingDecompressorFrameListener for HTTP/2 connections. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.2.13.Final and 4.1.133.Final.

Published: 2026-05-13 Last update: 2026-05-18 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-42587 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-42587

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-42587

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-22 0.06% 0.02% -0.04%
2 2026-05-19 0.04% 0.06% +0.02%
3 2026-05-14 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-42587

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-42587

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-42587

GHSA-f6hv-jmp6-3vwv · Severity: high · Ecosystem: maven — Netty: HttpContentDecompressor maxAllocation bypass when Content-Encoding set to br/zstd/snappy leads to decompression bomb DoS

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-42587

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-42587 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (netty), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-42587
suse high CVE-2026-42587 severity important: SUSE including 2 source package names (netty-tcnative, netty3), 24 product×package rows across 12 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, … (12 product lines)): Known Not Affected 24. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42587/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-42587 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (netty), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream): needs-triage 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-42587

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-42587

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
netty netty < 4.1.133 cpe:2.3:a:netty:netty:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netty netty >= 4.2.0, < 4.2.13 cpe:2.3:a:netty:netty:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-42587

cvelogic Threat Intelligence